Page 100 of Desolation

“No, don’t you babe me,” she spits, pointing a finger at him. “She is clearly a prime suspect here. That act she put on at the barbeque hit me in the gut. I knew something was off about her. And I remember where I’ve seen her before. At one of her many galas. My brother has been to them. I’ve been to them with him and my mother. I am sure those galas were used to raise money to aid a terrorist organization.”

I swallow before speaking, gathering my thoughts. “She thinks her husband is behind the accounts. It’s what she has told me from the beginning. Some way to keep her from getting a divorce. He plans to run for president. He doesn’t want a scandal on his hands. The truth of his adultery would be revealed in the divorce.”

“We just need to talk to her.” Jackson sighs as he heads to the door of his office. “I’m going to check and see if Jimmy has found anything.”

I look at David who is shooting daggers at Charlie. Charlie is fuming and Mark looks scared to soothe her even though he is trying.

We sit there for ten minutes. None of us talking. We all know we will just argue for hours. The urge to call Mari runs through my bones. Something isn’t right. And not the fact that everyone here except for me and David think she’s a terrorist.

I’m worried something happened to her. The break in from the other night. The missing person report. She is in danger and the need to protect her is a fire that runs through my veins.

Jackson storms into his office. “Conference room now.”

We all jump to our feet, not sure what his urgency is about.

“Twilight, grab a first aid kit.”

I’m out of the room before anyone. My intuition on high alert as I dash to the conference room.

Jackson is on my heels as I rush in.

Mari is sitting in the room, head down, her hair covering her beautiful face.

I breathe a sigh of relief. The noise causing her to look at me.

I stop in my tracks at the look on her face. Fear is etched all over her.

But that isn’t what makes me close the distance between us.

It’s what I couldn’t see when she was hunched over.

Her hand is holding a bloody cloth to her arm and a deep slash cuts across her forehead.

My hands are on her in an instant. Pulling her as close to me as possible.

She collapses in my arms, her tears staining my shirt.

“Landon,” my name comes out of her mouth like a prayer.

At this point, I don’t care if she lied to me. I don’t care who she is. All I care about is that she is safe right now. Because I know I am in love with her and I don’t want to lose her.

My lips are on hers and she cries into my mouth. I pull away and pull my shirt off, pressing it to her head. “What happened?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mari

I can’t get the words out to tell Landon what happened. Because I don’t even know. Dax called me and asked me to swing by. I started driving here. I figured he found something out and he needed to tell me. But I realized I was being followed. Then all hell broke loose.

I don’t hear anything but the beating of Landon’s heart. My saving grace. The one person that makes me feel safer than anyone. Safe enough to tell my secrets to. Every last one of them.

The click of the door to the room Jackson led me to when I stumbled into Cole Security Forces makes me pull away from Landon.

He tends to my wounds as best he can while Mark rushes over, a first aid kit in his hands.

Charlie is standing by the door, a scowl on her face. Gone is the woman who was friendly and fun the other day. This woman is scary as fuck.

Mark pushes Landon away and I grab Landon’s shirt in time to keep it against my head wound. Mark pulls the towel away from my arm, the one Jackson gave me when I stumbled into the office.

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